School briefly locked down Wednesday, all after-school events were canceled

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Four north suburban high school students were charged with felonies Thursday after allegedly bringing a gun to school, prompting a lockdown on Wednesday.

Updated at 2:15 PM CST on Thursday, Oct 22, 2009

A gun spotted in a boys' locker room which prompted a lockdown on of the school and cancellation of all after-school activities Wednesday has earned felony charges for four students at the school, police said Thursday.

Three 15-year-old boys and a 14-year-old boy, all Waukegan High students, were charged Thursday with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, a Class 4 felony, and were taken to the Lake County juvenile detention center in Vernon Hills, authorities said in a release.

At about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Waukegan police were called to the school, at 1011 Washington St., after a student reported seeing another student with a gun in the boys' locker room.

A 9mm semi-automatic wasn't loaded, police said, but a student didn't know that when he notified a physical education teacher.

The student with the gun ran out of the room and then out of the building when the teacher tried to approach him. That teacher caught the student outside, recovered the gun and turned it over to the school's resource officer, police said.

The school was locked down when police were told that another gun might be in the school. Students were released one classroom at a time and required to pass through metal detectors prior to exiting the building.

No guns were found after the extensive search, police said. There were no injuries.

Besides the initial student found with the gun, three others charged each handled the gun at some point, the release said.

There reportedly is a second gun, but it has not been located. One of the students charged is accused of removing it from the school.